ATP Finals 2019: Tsitisipas makes perfect graduation from NextGen Finals, beats Thiem to win biggest title of his career
Stefanos Tsitsipas was the winner at the 2018 NextGen ATP Finals in Milan. A year later, he was the last man standing at the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals, overcoming another first-time tournament finalist Dominic Thiem in a thrilling third-set tiebreak.
It was a fitting end to an incredible season which saw the 21-year-old Greek become the youngest Grand Slam semifinalist at the Australian Open in 12 years (Novak Djokovic in 2007), make his debut in the top-10, rise 45 places during the calendar year, and end the season with the biggest title of his young career.
Tsitsipas also became the youngest winner at the ATP Finals since Djokovic triumphed in 2008. This latest result marks the first time since 1993 (1993-Michael Stich, 1992-Boris Becker, 1991-Pete Sampras, 1990-Andre Agassi, 1989-Stefan Edberg) that the ATP Finals has seen five different winners in as many seasons.
The 21-year-old Athens native is the 24th different player to win the elite season-ending tournament, the last three players to do so being Grigor Dimitrov (2017), Andy Murray (2016) and Nikolay Davydenko (2009).
At the end of a competitive opening set of the first ATP Finals title match to feature two players with single-handed backhands since 2006 (where Roger Federer beat James Blake), Thiem edged a tight tiebreak to grab the early iniative.
It was now advantage Thiem as no player since David Nalbandian in 2005 had won the ATP Finals after dropping the first set. But history did not prove to be burdensome for the young Greek as he capitalized on a let-down from Thiem to effect a double break lead and level the match.
Riding his momentum in the decider, Tsitisipas broke Thiem for a 2-1 lead but Thiem fought back to recoup the break for 3-3. Games proceeded on serve till a final tiebreak materialized, where Thiem looked dead and buried after conceding a double mini-break to fall behind 1-4.
But then Tsitsipas lost both points on serve as both players got to within three points of their maiden title at the tournament. Successive errors from Thiem set up two championship points for Tsitsipas, who converted at the first time of asking to become the newest winner at the ATP Finals.